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Floppy Drives

Basics

May 31, 1999
By David Risley

Floppy drives are the slots on the front of your computer that you insert disks into, copy files to, and install programs from. Old ones are 5<" wide; these drives are big and ugly. They accept the big 5<" disks that can't hold very much data. Today, we laugh at a computer that still has one of these things. Almost all of us now have 3=" drives. These drives accept 3=" disks. These diskettes come in different densities. The old ones are single-sided and only hold 720 KB of data. The standard disks of today are called high-density. They usually hold 1.44 MB of data. The newest disks are called extended-capacity and they hold 2.88 MB.

Before a floppy diskette can be used, it must be formatted. This prepares the disk so that the drive can use it. To do this, type FORMAT A: at the DOS prompt (C:),. When Windows asks for a label, it wants to know what you want to call the disk.

Notes: You can't use a high-density disk in a low-density drive. Also, when formatting, make sure you type A:. Do not type any other drive, especially C:, otherwise you're in for trouble. Floppies are almost always A:. Also, disks can go bad. If a particular diskette has many errors, trash it.

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